This is an email (see below) I received from my sister summarizing what was discussed at Monday’s treatment team meeting.

I find it absurd that all of a sudden they seem to be so concerned with getting mom moved out of the Halifax Psychiatric Center. I’m also decidedly opposed to the idea of her being put into Lakewood. [My wife]’s mom visited Lakewood for me a few weeks ago and was not impressed at all. And — worse than that — before I knew anything about the place I tried multiple times to contact them and their phones weren’t working. When I finally was able to talk to the administrator there — a woman named Maria who sounded disorganized and incompetent — she made many excuses about their phone system and was terribly unprofessional. It also bothers me that now representatives from Halifax Psychiatric are pushing this Lakewood place on us; the people at Stewart-Marchman were doing the same thing. I really think that there may be some under-the-table financial incentive involved with that place, that’s how shady I think it is.

My sister told me that someone from Chamberlain Edmondshttp://www.chamberlinedmonds.com/ called her out of the blue on Monday to discuss my mom’s lack of insurance and possible Medicaid issues. My sister was unfortunately very vague about the details of the call. (Their website does not seem to portray them as any place that you go for help, though; it seems like a service a hospital or insurance company would use to get money from patients.)

Apparently we are supposed to have a conference call with Connie Wade — the “social worker” there — and Dr. Caliendo this Friday morning in which my sister thinks they are going to put pressure on us to get mom out of there.

I’m pretty upset about the fact that they are trying to do this stuff through my sister instead of dealing with me. I know it’s only because they know they can push her around and that I will ask too many questions and be “difficult” and it really, really makes me angry. I’ve told my sister repeatedly — and Halifax Psychiatric Center even forced me to take a silly written test to confirm! — that I alone, as her official Guardian Advocate, am supposed to be the one allowed to represent my mother. But, of course, they don’t particularly seem to care about that.

I am very nervous about this phone call we’re supposed to have on Friday. I have no idea what to expect and I hate that.

Thank you so, so, so much for any help you can provide,
dvg

David Vincent Gagne

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